Aaron Broussard, the former Jefferson Parish president, is scheduled to appear in federal court this morning to answer to yet more charges of corruption in his administration. He's scheduled to be arraigned on charges of accepting $66,000 in bribes from a communications supply company in exchange for his steering work to the Kenner firm.

T-P archiveCHRIS GRANGER / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE Former Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard, right, walks out of the federal courthouse in downtown New Orleans with his attorney, Robert Jenkins, on Friday, December 16, 2011.

A federal grand jury handed up the charges July 27, in the second superseding indictment filed in U.S. District Court in New Orleans since prosecutors brought the initial charges in December. Broussard, who rose through Jefferson Parish politics from Kenner to the top elected post in Louisiana's most populous parish, faces 27 counts of theft, conspiracy, fraud and now bribery.

His parish attorney, Tom Wilkinson, faces 22 counts of conspiracy, theft and fraud. Wilkinson is not accused in the bribery counts.

Broussard is accused of accepting about $1,500 monthly from 2004 to 2007 from First Communications Co. owner Bill Mack, in exchange for parish contracts. Broussard presumably will plead not guilty during the 11 a.m., hearing before Magistrate Judge Frances Stacy.

Bill Mack

Mack was charged July 27 through a bill of information, and his attorney said this week Mack will plead guilty. He has owned First Communications Co. since 1982, and his relationship with Broussard dates to at least 2002, when Broussard was on the parish council, according to federal prosecutors.

Mack, 63, allegedly paid Broussard kickbacks for steering contracts to his company. In 2004, for instance, Mack allegedly paid Broussard about $18,000 "for his official acts," according to the bill of information. Broussard received the bribes at Mack's office, prosecutors allege.

Broussard and Mack allegedly sought to conceal the bribes. Broussard, with Mack's help, also allegedly tailored a request for proposal for a parish communications contract valued at almost $200,000, in an effort to steer the work to First Communications Co., according to the Mack bill of information.

Broussard, among other things, already is charged with payroll fraud in connection with employing his then-wife Karen Parker as a paralegal, despite her lacking the required certification for the job. She held the title and received the pay of a paralegal supervisor, although she essentially issued identification cards to parish employees, according to the indictment.

That, according to federal prosecutors, meant Parker was paid $323,300 from 2004 to 2010, about $129,000 more than the identification card job paid. Wilkinson is accused of colluding with Broussard in the hire and of manipulating parish records to eliminate a break in Parker's employment so as to not hurt her longevity benefit.